Rebecca Danger

Meet Yuki!

I've got another pattern for you.......meet Yuki the Cookie Ninja!

Hiiiiiiiii-yah! We are very into ninjas in this house. The first day P went to his ABA therapy he came home calling himself "Ninja Presley." NO idea where the heck that came from, we had not introduced him to ninjas really before that. But, we roll with it. Hmm, roll with the punches, you might say. And, since I had made the giant ninja in 50 Yards, I have been itching to make another more detailed, huggable sized ninja. So voila.

I LOVE this guy! Don't I say that with every pattern? But seriously. This guy has SO much personality, especially for only being able to see his eyes! And, his story was so fun to write and came out super funny. He's been a blast to work on and I am really pleased to be sharing him with you.

And you know what the best part of this guy is? I knit all of my samples from Yoth Yarns. Have you had a chance to knit with YOTH yet? Oh my, pure delight. If you like knitting, knitting with YOTH will take your love to the next level. As I was planning out this pattern, I was a little worried about it being too boring when most of my patterns are so bright and colorful. But then I thought to myself, "Oh! Those amazing neutrals from YOTH would be PERFECT for a ninja!" And so I sent Veronika from YOTH a message, and she sent me all the yarn. I think the yarn totally makes the ninjas.

I just listed the pattern in my Ravelry shop and my Etsy shop. Yuki is on sale for 4 bucks until 3/25, too, so grab a copy today! I am sure if you know any little boys they would love a knitted ninja. And, I am sure little girls would love a ninja, too! I just happen to be a little more of an expert in boy toys. I picked the name as "Yuki" because I felt it could be a boy or girl ninja, depending on what you want. 

Enjoy! Happy Knitting guys!

Meet Loretta Lamb!

Hey friends.

I wasn't kidding when I said I would get a new pattern up quick, was I? Meet Loretta:

It only took me 7 years of pattern writing, but I finally did it. I wrote a sheep knitting pattern. Sheep, right? I mean as knitters, aren't they like the one creature that makes knitting possible? Yes, there are plenty of other fibers, and plenty of people are allergic to wool, but knitting really all comes down to sheep. So here she is, a knitter's best friend, Loretta the Laid Back Lamb!

I hope you love her! She was so fun to knit. Although I will admit I have had the samples done for am embarrassingly long amount of time (you should ask my test knitter!) and finally got to laying out the pattern over this last weekend. Slowly but surely folks!

I have her listed on etsy and on ravelry and she's ready to knit up! She is on sale for $4 until 2/27, too, so grab her now!

And, since I can't resist at least a little sheep humor:

How many sheep does it take to knit a sweater?

None. Sheep can't knit.

Happy knitting, sheepy friends!

Happy 2016!

Hey friends!

I know, I know, a little late on the New Year wishes there, Rebecca. But since I haven't posted since August, and it is not even February yet, I'd say I'm doing OK.

Just a quick note to say hi! I am still alive. I did a little blog facelift here (still working out the kinks, like I didn't know you could automatically do a signature...), and an etsy shop facelift, and I've even been working on a couple patterns! I'm planning to start getting them posted pretty quick here, too.

Oh, and did you see I have a new book coming out very soon? Exciting stuff!

Hope you all are doing well. Post soon.

Planning and Scheming

Hello friends!

How are you guys? I went to the Epic Meetup for the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild this weekend and had a blast. Didn't get a ton of sewing in at the sew-in, but did meet a bunch of awesome people, get lots of good conversations in, and saw some spectacular projects. Oh, and I won a door prize!

I have 4 gift quilts I am working on right now. Two I mentioned last week for the neighbors, and 2 more for a couple of P's therapists because we will be moving from our current clinic to this new ABA clinic next week, and once school starts, we won't have time for the therapy we have been doing until this point. These gals have been so helpful and P is doing so much better in so many areas, I want to give them a big thank you. The neighbors quilts are all ready to get quilted, but I bought a new sewing machine last week (!!!!!) so I was waiting to get it before I quilted them. And since I was waiting, I started piecing these other 2 gift quilts. Sheesh. When I do something I go all in. 

So anyway, I am going to get these 2 tops pieced hopefully today, and then this will be the week of quilting. I bought a "quilting" machine, so it has more space not only from the needle to the right side of the machine (throat, or harp space), but it is also like twice as tall as the space on my old machine, which means I will be able to fit my quilts through a wee bit easier. I think I will do a post about my machines at some point because I always get questions on them. But not today since I am really looking forward to sitting down and putting in some hours and bonding with my new machine. I've got to name it. Hopefully I will come up with something as I get to know her. Or him?

And while I am sewing, I have been feeling like making some changes in my life here recently so I am going to contemplate those. Hence the scheming in the post title.

Hope you all have a great week! I will be sure to stop in here and post some pictures on my progress. Also come follow me on Instagram for even more pic updates!

Thanks for visiting me!

This Week

Hello friends!

I've been quiet this week since I decided last Sunday to make a kid's quilt and a baby quilt and have them done and ready to give by 3pm this afternoon (today is saturday). Sheesh. P has discovered our 2-houses-up neighbor is a 4 year old girl, and we spent the afternoon last weekend playing with her. He then got invited to her 5th birthday party today, so I immediately decided I would make her a quilt. Because that's what I do. Oh, and did I mention they have a 3-week old baby boy, who I also decided needed a quilt? Oh yeah, that too. Hence 2 quilts done in a week. And also hence no blogging, since I have been sewing like a maniac. Although, that pretty much describes me every week.

Well, I have been working this week, but we had a couple out of the norm doctors' appointments again which took a chunk of sewing time, and I have not gotten nearly as much done as I had hoped this week. Also, I got to 11pm wednesday night, sat down to sew all my blocks together and add the sashing on the little girl's quilt, and realized I had done some fuzzy quilt math and was 6 blocks short. D'oh! Since thursday and friday we are out pretty much all day for therapy, I ordered an emergency present on Amazon and decided I will finish the quilts as I can, and just call them "new baby gifts" hopefully sometime this week. I got this.

Oh, did I mention I have 2 more quilts I need to make as thank you gifts by the first week of September? If I am going to do something, I am going to do it well.

Hope you all are having a lovely week! I will hopefully have lots of finished quilt pictures here very soon! 

Thanks for visiting me!

My Mayhem Quilt {A Finished Quilt}

Helloooo friends! So this post started with the title, "Quilting Mayhem Quilt {A Finished Quilt}" and I took one look at it, and even in my cold pills fog, realized that it was most likely the worst blog post title of all time. Good choice, hmm?

Ok, I've got a finished quilt to share! I have mentioned it several times, but I made this one as a shop sample for my local quilt shop Quilting Mayhem. 

Yeah! I got something finished this week! I mentioned while discussing teaching classes in the shop that I had the Hexi Ruler at home and had made a couple Hexi quilts already, which lead to an immediate "Would you like to make one for the shop?" So there you go. They picked out and sent home 11 fat quarters for me, I pieced the top, went back in, and they sent me home with the binding and backing. The quilt came out 42" w x 56" l, and since the quilting cotton is 42/44" wide, I added in a strip of 3" (finished) wide scraps to give me a little extra room to play with.

I used a rayon blend batting from Pellon, but didn't wash it, so no crinkles. I used basic white cotton quilting threads and did my quilting lines about 5/8" apart. I bought a walking foot with a quilting guide a few weeks ago and tried it out on this guy. My quilting did not come out as straight as I would of liked as I got used to the guide. I think I might just stick with marking the quilting lines on my quilts for the time being since I am much more comfortable with that at this point.

This was a fun little project! I don't normally like purple that much so I don't really work with it very often, so it was fun to do something outside of my norm. These hexi's are sure a sure quick, super satisfying sew for me. I was only happy to have an excuse to make another one!

Thanks for visiting me!

Blargh.

So, though it looks like I was productive last week with my finished Fox Quilt post and my Fox pattern posts, those things were ready in advance and behind the scenes we have been hit with the plague. OK, maybe plague is a little dramatic, but seriously, whatever this is it is horrible. We have all had fevers, Mr Danger has had this for 2 weeks now (and happily shared it with the rest of us last week), none of us are sleeping because we are up all night coughing, there is throwing up, cold sweats...you get the idea.

Needless to say not a ton of craftiness has been happening for me. Since I have been on the couch watching movies with the kids, I did start working on designing my next knitting pattern, but I am wondering how it will look once out of this cold pill induced, flu-headed crazy state I feel myself in. We will just have to see.

I did manage to piece the back of the little quilt I'm working on for Quilting Mayhem yesterday, and I got it basted, so I am hoping to sit down and do a little quilting today, once my cold pills kick in. Hopefully I can get this little guy finished. And, I pulled out fabric from stash, and bought backing fabric (plus a couple little new matchy fabrics to go with those from stash) plus binding and batting to make another quilt that I got all excited about last week (before the plague hit), so hopefully I will get to a little cutting and piecing on that guy this week, too. Gonna set my crafty plans low again this week so I can hopefully achieve them!

What about you guys? Has everyone realized school starts super soon so you all are heading out on vacation? Or are you savoring the last lazy days of summer and getting lots of knitting and sewing in while you relax at home with the fam?

Thanks for visiting me.

 

Fancy Fox {A Finished Quilt}

Yeah! My Fancy Fox quilt is all done, wahoo! See my fox theme with the pattern I put out yesterday, and my knit version that came out earlier this year? After working on those two, I knew it was time to give this fox project a go as well.

This was a big project for me with a lot of mishaps. But I love it. And more importantly P, the recipient of the Fancy Fox quilt, really, really loves it. Ready for lots of photos? Let's go!

 

The pattern is Fancy Fox  from Elizabeth Hartman. I did the twin size, which consisted on 80 foxes and came out right about 60" w x80" l. I used cotton batting, and quilted using orange cotton quilting thread. The only change I made is I like a thicker binding than the standard 1/4" binding, so I cute mine 4" wide and sewed it at 5/8".

There are even little foxes on the binding!

I did diagonal lines for quilting 3/4" apart, and I love how they perfectly lined up on some of the fox faces, like this one. Originally I was going to do 1" windowpanes, but am happy in the end that didn't work out because I think the diagonals are just the right amount of simple quilting that add to the overall texture, but don't distract from the showcase foxes.

 

And one happy, silly, Fancy Fox quilt owner.

Fun, fun, fun you guys. Make this quilt, it was really a pleasure. Even with all my mishaps.

Let me know if you have any questions about my quilt in the comments below.

Thanks for visiting me!

Meet Frank the Fox!

Hey guys! So you know how I've been working on my Fancy Fox quilt recently? Well, I have been working on a fox sewing pattern for awhile, which inspired me to get started on the fox quilt. 

Meet Frank the Fox!

 

I'm loving this guy. Ever since I put my knitted version out earlier this year, I decided I needed to make his sewn counterpart. I love his wiggly body (I don't know why, wiggly is the word that comes to mind for his body shape) and super big triangle face/nose. And I really love that his hands look like mittens!

I made my samples in quilting cotton, knit fabric, and fleece fabric, and I think he is equally cute in all three fabrics. He is a pretty easy sew, I would recommend him for an advanced beginner. 

He is listed for sale in my etsy shop! 

Thanks for visiting me.

 

Another Update

So I have posted this post and this post about what has been going on around here recently, and now we have even more information, so I thought I would update y'all.

Presley was officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder this last week. I was pretty sure it was coming, but it has felt like a big blow and really threw me last week. Hence the lack of posts.

I think with our "undiagnosed" diagnosis I felt like we might be able to get out of ASD, or maybe I was just crazy and I would wake up one morning and everything would be "normal," or something. But, it is official now, and I am trying to figure out what that means for me, my family, my work, and everything else. For Presley I don't feel like it changes much: the behaviors are still there and we are dealing with each one like we were before having an official diagnosis. For me, I feel like it changes how I feel about the whole situation.

Thanks for visiting me and sharing in my life story.